When biological samples including cells or cellular components are collected and/or processed for testing, these cells or cellular components can clump or stick together. This could be problematic for the testing down stream, e.g., this may block the flow of fluid through testing devices or make sample analysis difficult. In particular, whenever samples are “stressed” either through shipment or pre-processing, they begin to clump up when passing through testing devices, e.g., microfluidic devices. For example, older samples and samples from patients with medical conditions accentuate such clumping effect even further. In addition, pre-processing of samples, for example, through density gradients or centrifugation steps activates the clumping effect.
There is a need in the field for methods or reagents useful for addressing the cell clumping issue in sample collection and processing.